Power

"Power" tells the story of James "Ghost" St. Patrick, a wealthy New York City nightclub owner who caters to the city's elite. He wants to build an empire, turn the club into a Fortune 500 business, but there's just one problem: Ghost is living a double life. When he is not in the club, he is the kingpin of the most lucrative drug network in New York for a very high-level clientele. His marriage, family and business all become unknowingly threatened as he is tempted to leave his criminal life behind and become the rags-to-riches businessman he wants to be most of all.

Erik Adams

Alan Jones

If The Sopranos, in all its intricacy, finds layers in its antihero that are relatable even as it reveals how damaged the man is by a life of violence, then Power comes across as nothing more than a warmed-over soap opera only superficially obsessed with Ghost's relationship to guns and drugs.

Brian Lowry

David Wiegand

The show was created by Courtney Kemp Agboh and has so much going for it--on the surface, anyway--that it's almost criminal that a powerful, attractive cast and high-end production values are hobbled by such a stupefying absence of originality.

Robert Lloyd

It moves along, dutifully moving the players to their appointed plot points. And there are some nice performances; I would draw your attention to that of Naturi Naughton, as Ghost's wife, consistently a warm body in an often chilly show.

Ed Bark

Power has some pull, but maybe not enough to win a tug of war. Its overall pacing could use a perk-up and its portrayals of minorities (who twice drop the n-word) might take more heat if 50 Cent wasn’t both calling the shots and rapping a theme song that includes the lyric, “I’m an undercover liar. I lie under the covers.”

Mark A. Perigard

Hardwick might be the most jacked actor working on TV and has some nice moments with Loren as he tries to reconnect with a love that has only grown fonder over the years. But the dialogue, slathered with f-bombs, seems lazy, and there’s not much ur­gency to the plot.

Alessandra Stanley

Kyle Anderson

The volatile combo of elements leads to occasionally sloppy storytelling, but the cast--particularly the icy Hardwick and the oft-nude Naughton--makes it a deeply bingeable guilty pleasure. [30 May 2014, p.115]

David Hinckley

Tirdad Derakhshani

Created by Courtney Kemp Agboh, the Emmy-nominated writer/producer of The Good Wife, and fueled by a powerful yet understated performance by Omari Hardwick, the series captures the spirit of Fitzgerald's novel while telling a story that's very much of our time.